


Starlight In Your Eyes

by Bootyenthused



Series: Young and Valuable [2]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3, Fallout 4
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Fluff, One-Shot, Pining, Stargazing, Young Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-13
Updated: 2016-05-13
Packaged: 2018-06-08 03:58:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6838165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bootyenthused/pseuds/Bootyenthused
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amelia finds a book on constellations, wants to share it with her best friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Starlight In Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place somewhere in the middle of all the fun little time gaps in chapter three of [Wasted Youth](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5974924/chapters/13730683). Can be read without reading the fic, but it'll probably just seem weird.

Stargazing isn’t something Amelia ever took much interest in. Living underground for the majority of her life meant there weren’t any stars to be seen. But a few weeks ago, Danse came back from a general recon mission, checking in on their positions or whatever, and he brought her a mostly intact book on astronomy. Applied physics isn’t really her strong suit, but she can match pictures to things easily enough, so she stowed it away in her bag for later.

Astronomy ends up dazzling her a little more than she thought. The technical jargon is difficult, sure, but she avoids it in favor of looking at the constellation maps, at the terrains of different planets and pictures of terrestrial bodies billions of light years away. She knows how good pre-war technology was, has seen the best of it first hand, but she’s still blown away by how much information they were able to gather with a camera and a radio frequency. Or something like that.

It’s after a week or so of studying the maps that she decides to bring up her findings to Arthur. They planned on doing some night shooting anyway, so she already has an excuse as to why she wants to drag him out to the range late at night. Not that they do much shooting these days; what used to be target practice has dissolved more into games of _spot the mutant_ or _chug the Quantum_ or something equally young and dumb.

She pitches the night shooting idea to Arthur a few days later, and he’s all for it, except it’ll be a few days until they can get to it. Some sort of head paladin duties, she’s not really sure. He doesn’t specify. She would guess it has something to do with Elder Johan’s ousting, if the rumors are anything to go by. Whatever it be, it’s no concern of a lowly scribe, so she tells him that they’ll find time, that she’s not worried about it.

Arthur’s postponement ends up benefiting her, in a way. In the bailey, the lights are too bright to see stars clearly, and she decides to go out to the range alone for the first time. It’s nerve-wracking, definitely, having never been out there alone at night before. But if someone – or something – were to disturb the area, she’s sure they would have done so already in the two dozen or so times she and Arthur have come out here over the past five months.

She spends that night sprawled on her back on the concrete, looking at stars and drawing lines between them with her fingers.

   


\------

  


Another week goes by and it doesn’t seem like Arthur’s going to have any free time soon. Not when Johan is replaced by Sentinel Rhodes, when the new elder promotes Arthur to sentinel right thereafter. He’s a high ranking officer now, he has responsibilities and doesn’t have the leisure time to spend with his low-ranked friends. It’s fine. She’ll get over it.

Amelia goes out to look at the stars every couple days, increasingly comfortable going out on her own. She reads up on the constellations she’s found and tries to find the patterns of the ones she hasn’t. One particularly clear night, she loads up on sugary sweets, packs a couple extra books and a bedroll and decides to make a night out of it. She doesn’t have duty the next day, and being outside is much more relaxing than staying within the Citadel’s walls. Once its late and most everyone’s in bed, she slips out of the barracks and through the abandoned hallways, climbing out the window with ease.

It doesn’t take long for her to set up. She scans the area for dangers, even though she knows there aren’t any, not here, not when the patrols walk less than forty yards away every thirty-two minutes. When she’s certain she’s alone, she throws her bedroll haphazardly onto the ground, plopping down on her back right after with the astronomy book open on her chest. The sky is clearer than usual, no fog or clouds to obscure her view of the stars.

She squints to read the pages in the darkness, even though she’s almost memorized how the stars are supposed to look this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere. Corona Borealis is easy to spot, a small u-shape off to the right of the sky. And then there’s Ophiuchus a little ways off, composing stars shining brightly against the blackness of space. Serpens is a little harder to spot, partly split on either side of Ophiuchus, the split constellation…

“You shouldn’t go wandering off alone,” a deep voice interrupts her gazing. Amelia sits up, startled, afraid that she’s been caught by the patrollers.

When she whips her head around, she sees Arthur standing twenty feet behind her, smirking with his hands cupped over his mouth to make his voice more intimidating.

“You scared me,” she says, and Arthur just laughs, strolls over to her with his hands in his pockets. His scar stands stark against the pale of his smooth skin, a few patches of dark hair peeking out where he hasn’t shaved. He’s lovely like this, under the moonlight, shaggy chin-length hair reflecting the deflected rays. Amelia chastises herself for thinking it; Arthur’s her best friend. Her undoubtedly attractive best friend who’s on track to leading the entire Brotherhood. She’s a wastelander with a sketchy past. It doesn’t work, logically speaking.

Her best friend plops down into her bedroll, dives right into her stash of sweets. It’s not like he needed to ask permission, not when half the stuff in the pack was bought with his allotted caps. But Amelia still groans like she’s annoyed, bumping her shoulder against his playfully. Arthur just smiles at her with a mouthful of Fancy Lads, half-eaten snack cakes squeezing between his teeth. For someone so esteemed, his manners are horrible.

“What _are_ you doing out here, alone?” he asks once he’s washed down the snack cakes with a bit of Nuka Cola. Amelia flips open the book in her hands even though she knows he can’t read it in this light.

“Constellations,” she says, motioning to the book then to the stars above them. Arthur tilts his head in confusion, the concept being new to him.

“It’s like, ancient civilizations made stories, about their gods. Put those stories to the skies and drew lines between stars to symbolize them. They used them for navigation, too, and to determine what time of year it was,” she tries to explain, but if anything Arthur just looks even more confused. “Lay back, I’ll show you.”

Amelia lays back on the bedroll, pats the spot next to her when Arthur hesitates to join her. He realizes that it’s just better to go with it, flops down next to Amelia and scoots closer so their shoulders are just barely touching.

“That one,” Amelia starts, pointing to one of the brightest stars in the sky. “Is the North Star, Polaris. It’s what sailors used to make sure they were on course. It’s part of the Little Dipper.”

"I know the North Star. We're trained to use that in case the location systems go dark or we get stranded," he responds, rolling his eyes. Amelia's only a little bit discouraged, but instead of dwelling on it she moves her hand across the sky to another group of stars.

“Those stars over there, they’re part of the Corona Borealis, or the North Crown. It’s supposed to represent the crown worn by some king’s daughter after she helped defeat some weird bull thing.”

“Where? I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Arthur says after a few moments of silence. Amelia sighs, nestles further back into the ground as she points to another bigger constellation.

“Do you see that rectangular looking thing?” she points to each of the four stars that compose the shape. Arthur just laughs a little, still confused.

Amelia grows increasingly disgruntled. This is why she’s not a teacher.

“Here,” she says, grabbing ahold of Arthur’s hand and closing her fist around it, fingers not interlocking but instead laid on top of each other’s. “Stick out your pointer finger.”

Arthur’s silent as she commands him, does what she says so their index fingers are pressed against each other’s. His heart’s beating a little more rapidly, and he worries that Amelia can feel his heightened pulse through the links of their fingers, that it'll reveal the way his stomach soars every time she touches him. It’s a ridiculous notion, but he's not a doctor, so he doesn't know how valid it could be.

“These four stars, here,” Amelia tries again, using their fingers to trace the rectangle again. Arthur nods, a little certain that he knows what she’s referring to. “There’s a couple like, lines coming off it, here.”

She traces a v-pattern, then a couple more lines, and Arthur starts to catch on, especially when one of the legs has a few pretty prominent stars.

“What is it?” he asks, and he’s almost actually interested. Almost. But his voice feigns indifference, like he’s just humoring her rather than taking an interest in what she’s explaining, not wanting to give away his feelings. Doesn't want her to know that he'd happily lay here and listen to her talk about star drawings all night if it just meant he could be close to her.

“That’s Hercules. He was the son of like, the main god, Zeus. Basically, he was this super strong, super powerful warrior who killed a bunch of weird animals. He was one of the most celebrated gods in antiquity. People would pray to him to protect their children and stuff.”

“That seems ridiculous.”

“Yeah, it was, I guess. But it’s just stories. People like having something to believe in.”

Amelia’s words sound so resigned; she’s almost ready to give up this ordeal and suggest they head back inside, indulge in their snacks in Arthur’s quarters over a game of chess or something, catch up on lost time. She sighs, and Arthur can’t stand to see his best friend so defeated, especially when he knows it's his own fault for acting so indifferent to something that she actually seems to care about.

To make it up to her, he weaves their fingers together, giving her hand a soft squeeze in reassurance that he cares, just doesn't want to say the words. They know each other well enough by now that she understands what he's trying to say. Her cheeks tint pink when she thinks about how nice Arthur's fingers feel between hers, how she really doesn't want him to let go.

Amelia sighs contentedly, and Arthur smiles to himself before extending his pointer finger, happy when she does the same.

“What about that thing, over there? There’s a bunch of stars doing a curly thing, that’s gotta mean something, right?” he asks, motioning to a cluster of stars. He can almost hear Amelia’s smile, the lighthearted tone returning when she speaks.

“That’s the scorpion, he actually extends all the way up here…”

**Author's Note:**

> I actually know very little about constellations, but the point isn't that Amelia's an expert, just that she finds looking at stars relaxing and interesting. Which, who doesn't? Anyway, thanks for reading!


End file.
